Derogatory and insulting
"George Wallace, Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond became regional leaders, not in spite of, but because of, their overt appeals to our racism. And no matter how much we try to look the other way and pretend that [it is] all in the past, the rest of the country knows what Trent Lott and Bob Barr stand for. In spite of the whimpering denials and protestations of 'heritage', the entire world knows what the Confederate emblem on our state flag stands for." — Dallas Doctor, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 31
The following is the first installment of a series of seamless political exchanges between workers on a construction site in suburban Atlanta. Roosevelt and Billy Bob, who are African American and Caucasian American respectively, are not afraid to talk about anything, anytime or anywhere.
Roosevelt: Well, let's just imagine for a minute that instead of this being the US, we are in Germany. You want to fly a flag with a swastika on it over hallowed ground or on a building endowed with official state sovereignty. How do you think German Jews might feel? Here they are, German citizens by birth right, being forced by law to pay taxes on the ground or building that this flag is flying over.
Billy Bob: Oh, come on now. That's not a fair comparison.
R: Sure it is. German soldiers fought and died in war beneath that banner, but survivors and descendants of those millions of Jews who were herded into Hitler's gas chambers see the swastika as a symbol of mass murderers — and rightly so.
BB: But it's different with the Confederate flag. I mean, it really is a symbol of "southern heritage", like Jesse Helms says, and it's got a long history as a battle flag.
R: When an African American sees that flag, he or she sees an emblem that is the embodiment — in symbolic form — of slavery. The so-called southern heritage excuse stinks! It rises from the same kind of cultural ignorance that a lot of young black rap artists are mired in.
BB: I don't follow you. What do you mean?
R: I mean that a lot of young blacks, in much the same way that a lot of old whites delude themselves in their misguided Confederate flag "heritage" argument, are fooling themselves when they presume that their use of the n-word about one another — as a term of endearment — causes the word to cease being derogatory and insulting.
BY BRANDON ASTOR JONES
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns (include your name and full return address on the envelope, or prison authorities may refuse to deliver it). He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G3-77, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA, or email <BrandonAstorJones@hotmail.com>. You can visit the author's web site at <http://www.BrandonAstorJones.com>.]